When Justin Jensen started getting serious about his college search in 2008, he had a nearly impossible list of things he was looking for in a school. He wanted a program that had a "heavy emphasis" on international experience, something more than a typical semester study abroad. He wanted to expand on his foreign language training, specifically in Chinese. He wanted to major in business, with a focus on finance. And he didn't want to pay an exorbitant amount of money in the process. It was a tall order.
Lucky for Jensen, administrators at the University of South Carolina's Moore School of Business (Moore Undergraduate Business Profile)—just 100 miles from his home in Greenville—were finalizing plans to introduce what can only be described as an extreme immersion option for undergraduate business majors called International Business and Chinese Enterprise (IBCE). The program could have been designed specifically for Jensen.
First, students would spend two years in China, studying at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Also, the program would require participants to learn Chinese and double-major in international business and another area within the business school. IBCE was set to launch in the fall of 2009, when Jensen would be heading to college, and as a South Carolina resident he could pay in-state tuition, which is less than $11,000 a year.
Global Urge
Jensen, 20, is now a year and a half into the IBCE program and is spending his entire sophomore year in China. "This year I have traveled the world and made some incredibly close friends," he says. "I feel like I really understand Asia much better now. Career-wise, I am sure IBCE was the right choice."
While Jensen's college wish list may seem extreme, the demand for global exposure and experience is growing quickly among prospective college business majors, especially as a way to differentiate themselves in the eyes of recruiters. In the 2008-2009 academic year, nearly 220,000 undergrads participated in an international business course, up 27 percent from just three years earlier, according to the Centers for International Business Education and Research (CIBER). But students are looking for more than just a semester abroad taking general education courses that do not apply to their business major. They want an experience from which they can build their careers. "Today's students understand that we now live in this global economy, and they want to be a part of it," says Mark Ballam, managing director of the CIBER at San Diego State University, one of 33 such centers at campuses across the U.S. "It's sexy to them."
Business programs are answering the call from students in various ways. Some, like South Carolina, are ramping up efforts to offer more extreme immersion options for biz majors, while others are offering assistance in finding internships overseas, business-focused study-abroad options, and even specific business courses that require students to leave the U.S. In fact, nearly every school in Bloomberg Businessweek's sixth annual ranking of undergraduate business programs has undertaken efforts to enhance its international business options.
Notre Dame No. 1
At the top of the ranking for the second year in a row is the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business (Mendoza Undergraduate Business Profile). At Mendoza, business students have the option of studying abroad in countries like Egypt, Haiti, and South Africa, and are encouraged to take on a business-related research project while they are away from South Bend. Mendoza Dean Carolyn Woo estimates about half of the school's business students go overseas for study abroad, a number that's rising each year. "We see the students broadening themselves in unfamiliar environments," Woo says. "They seek out challenges that come when they are in a different culture."
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